New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near Hub of US Oil

Tomas Gibbons

10/25/15

Earth Science, D Odd, McClellan

Wines, Michael. "New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near a Hub of U.S. Oil." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/us/new-concern-over-quakes-in-oklahoma-near-a-hub-of-us-oil.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=34&pgtype=sectionfront>.

The article “New Concern over Quakes in Oklahoma Near Hub of US Oil” by Michael Wines talks about how the Oil companies stationed in Oklahoma are dumping waste into the earth and causing earthquakes. Over the past five years thousands of earthquakes have occurred and the reasoning is majorly due to the waste that oil companies are depositing into the interior of the earth. The waste deposited is having the effect of a lubricant of sorts on the tectonic plates and making it far easier for the plates to shift causing earthquakes. So far most earthquakes have been relatively minor however this was a fault plate that was deemed inactive or dormant until waste appeared on the fault. Daniel McNamara is a scientist studying the potential outcomes and damages that could result from these earthquakes. He expresses concern that after looking at the high amount of magnitude 4s that it's very likely that the magnitude of these earthquakes will increase to higher numbers. According to the article last year there was a total of 585 earthquakes and this year will have had even more.Unfortunately local authorities do not have the power to stop drilling, and attempt to bring seismic activity back down. Until greater power is given to authorities all they can do is talk to oil companies and try and get them to reduce the amount of waste dumped beneath the surface of the Earth.

This news is very important to our society and the world. It is providing very real evidence that the human race is hurting the environment and we are beginning to suffer for it. In the event that large amounts of oil were discovered in New York and companies began drilling it and dumping waste into the earth we could begin to feel those effects in Bronxville both literally and figuratively. On top of that the drilling of oil is already hurting the environment and depleting the earth's resources and very soon there won't be very much left to drill and use. As a society and world of people we should heed the warnings that one day very soon there won't be any oil left to drill.

After reading the article I felt very well persuaded on the topic and the risk of continued oil drilling in oklahoma. However a couple points stuck out to me. First the mention of what authorities were doing could have been backed up more and spoken a little more about. I can't imagine that if The New York Times is writing an article about drilling in Oklahoma that there isn't anything being done to end it or reduce safety risks. Additionally more numerical or statistical evidence really would have supported the argument even further. While the author did include some numerical evidence, a little bit more could have really impacted the article in a positive way.